Darkness
The Darkness, also known as Shadow Mario, Dark Mario, and the Voice, was a substance who was Nox Decious' former henchman and Mario's counterpart. It was created by Decious with the ancient spell El Nox de la Shateu, translating to the Darkness of the Shadow. Decious created the Darkness to bind his soul to the Stone of Righteousness. It is the fourth of the six arch villains in the Stupid Mario Bros series (alongside Bowser, Nox Decious, Wario, Blaire Vherestorm and Ganondorf. Eventually, the Darkness redeems itself and joins the Mushroom Force, betraying Decious in the process. But after what seemed to be his death once and for all, the Darkness turned evil again wanting to kill Mario. The Darkness was the secondary antagonist of Season Three, the main antagonist of The Movie, one of the main antagonists in Season Four,a supporting protagonist in Season Five, and the main antagonist of the first season of The Plumber Knight Returns. Biography Background When Nox Decious was researching the Stone of Righteousness and its powers of preventing death, he wanted to fuse it with his body so it wouldn't be taken from him. After having his face terribly scarred by Merlin in battle, Decious cast the ancient spell El Nox de la Shateu, which translates to "The Darkness in the Shadow." This spell created the Darkness, which Decious said would be a tool to assist in his dominating of the Real World. He sent the Darkness, his new henchman, to find the Stone of Righteousness, connect the stone to itself, and merge itself to his soul. At first, the Darkness obeyed his command and made Nox near immortal. However, after nearly 1,000 years of being trapped inside Decious, the Darkness began to resent its master, who viewed it as nothing more than a tool. Season Three When Nox Decious was killed, the Darkness needed a new body to attach itself to. The Darkness knew that the most powerful person was Mario, so it chose to attach itself to him in order to gain more power. It possessed Mario in a form of rage, making him attack Wario. Then the Darkness combined the energy that it took from his former boss with the energy it took from Mario and left him. It left Mario weak, but it had enough power to sustain itself and take physical form. Darkness took on the form of its most powerful host: Mario. However, Merlin was unaware that Mario was the Darkness' most powerful host and assumed it would take Decious' form. ]] The Darkness never had much of a role in Season Three because Wario was the main antagonist. The third season only shows how the Darkness was formed and was used for foreshadowing Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie. However, he did try to convince Waluigi to kill Mario like he did Wario, but ends up failing as Waluigi is smarter and more reasonable than his brother. The Darkness then convinces Wario to kill Mario and recharge the saber. It obtains Decious' hidden Black Widow Blade from the Orchard, which he had planned to use to deal the killing blow to Mario during their battle. Later, it is revealed that the Darkness serves Decious as his most trusted henchman. ''The Movie in the dark forest]] The Darkness is trying to help Nox Decious claim a vessel in Luigi so that he may then kill his own boss. As well, he plans to become immortal and to do so, he decides to eliminate the Mushroom Force in order of their strength. He first confronts Link, who has been lost in the woods for some time. They have a battle, but Link is killed when the Darkness impales him with the Black Widow Blade. He tries to claim the Artifact, but is quickly angered when he finds out that Link had already sealed it inside his soul. After once again losing to Mario, the Darkness confronts Bowser. He tries to strike a deal with the Koopa king, but he denies it and heads back to his portal leading to the Mushroom Kingdom. However, the Darkness says to himself that even if Bowser had become his friend, he would have ended up betraying and killing him anyway. ]] Later, he arrives at the Orchard once again, saying that once he is rid of "him", he will no longer have to hide in his shadow. The Darkness is encountered by Ness, who tells him he was informed of this by the letter Mario sent and tries to kill the Darkness. His PK Thunder attack fails, so he tries to charge the evil being with his baseball bat, which also fails. Ness is defeated, but informs the Darkness that he will meet his demise soon. The Darkness turns out to be somewhat merciful as he allows Ness to walk away from the battle alive. Notably, the Darkness flinches when it is attacked, meaning that Mario is turning it more human (which is explained and shown later on in the series). ]] While Solid Snake is out in the field trying to contact Otacon, Liquid Snake appears behind him, informing him that with his new ally (who turns out to be the Darkness), he will finally take over the Real World. Liquid leaves as the Darkness insults Snake and tries to kill him, but he is stopped by Luigi. They fight for a short time before Luigi is defeated, as well as having his physical form being taken over by Decious' spirit. Mario shows up after Luigi is supposedly murdered by Decious, lamenting for him. Luigi finally gets up, only for Mario to be informed that Luigi has already been taken over, now going by the name Mr. L. The Darkness stabs Mario from behind with the Black Widow Blade, seemingly killing him. The Darkness claims he no longer holds any allegiance toward Decious, informing him that he only served Decious and assisted him in taking over Luigi just so he could kill him and rule the world himself. Shortly after, Wario appears and demands to battle the Darkness, who is able to impale the Black Widow Blade through Wario, presumably killing him. The Darkness believes he didn't have the Truth Stone after all and wonders where it is. Suddenly, Darkness stops in his tracks and monologue and finds that the Nether Saber has been thrown through his back by Wario, who faked his death and was really protected by the Truth Stone. The Darkness laments having been cut off from having more fun before laughing evilly and presumably dying. Afterwards, Wario retrieves the Black Widow Blade and puts it in his pocket. Then he goes over to the Darkness' corpse and tells him to "rest in Hell" before leaving. Later on, Merlin reveals to Wario that only a specific counter-curse can destroy the Darkness in an absolute sense; Waluigi was supposed to give Wario the means to perform this curse, but he ended up forgetting about it. Meanwhile, the Darkness comes back to life, casts off his hat (as he says that he no longer needs to associate himself with Mario), and swears revenge on Wario, joyously shouting that he is back. on the battlefield]] Whether Merlin knew it or not, the Darkness had known about the counter-curse, so he forms a long-term plan behind the backs of the heroes. He studies everything Decious had learned, which included his knowledge of beam swords, allowing him to create several beam swords that mimicked and surpassed the Black Widow Blade's power. When he discarded his hat, the Darkness really transferred almost his entire being into it, except his body and mind. He recruits a boy named John (whose name he changes to Blaire Vherestorm), upon striking a deal with the Darkness. The two of them build an energy source designed for after his destruction. Afterwards, Wario returns to battle the Darkness one more time. After an initial struggle, Wario pins him to the ground, recites the counter curse, and supposedly kills him for good. However, it is revealed that Wario had only managed to kill a shell and the Darkness was actually dormant in the hat. Operation: Blind Storm The Darkness' hat is found by Solid Snake and Ness. When Ness puts it on briefly, the Darkness transfers itself into Ness, possessing him. The Darkness then uses him to lead Snake to the Energy Source. Still being controlled by the Darkness, Ness tells Snake to destroy it while Wario tells him otherwise. Since Ness is psychic, the Darkness always knew they would trust it over Wario and Solid Snake proceeds to destroy the source. The Darkness speaks to the entire group, telling them that the Energy Source was a beacon that connected their powers from the other worlds and that they are now powerless. The warriors believed that the Darkness would never rise again, but it is later revealed that the Beacon's destruction only made it more powerful. Season Four With the destruction of the Beacon, the powers of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Ness are transferred to the Darkness, thus making him the most powerful being in existence. However, he is unable to take physical form, so he tries to take a new one because Mario's was the first one that he took. The Darkness soon realizes that his spirit will only take physical form when the Mushroom Force regain their powers first. He orders Blaire to create the Trifecta to force the Mushroom Force to regain their powers. However, knowing about Ganon's evil plan, he warns Blaire to cease action the moment Mario has gotten his powers in order to have him defeat Ganon, which would allow the Darkness to take over instead. Afterwards, he obtains his physical form, but doesn't let Blaire know about this so that he can be sure he follows his orders. ]] Blaire betrays him by attacking Mario and the Darkness reveals himself. Allowing Mario to escape, Darkness confronts Blaire. Disgusted at his former apprentice's orders, the Darkness kills him with a Black Widow Blade replica and walks off to find and kill Mario. The Darkness explains his plan in its entirety to Mario, why he killed Blaire, and warns him of Ganon. He then walks off in order to build his own army in case Mario fails to defeat Ganon. Season Five The Darkness meets with the General. He tells him of his changing of hair and complains about General not forming his army. However, he is then shown his army, which he thanks the General for. The Darkness is warned by the General about the upcoming ninja attack. He responds with an attack by his forces and then summons Ken for the task. Darkness, Ken, and General confront Zubashi and the ninjas. The Darkness then summons his pirates to battle the ninjas. After the battle, the pirates end up victorious and Ken knocks out Zubashi. He orders the General to shoot the remaining ninjas except for one to be followed by Ganon's base. The Darkness also tells Ken to follow the ninja back to Ganon's base. ]] The Darkness, Ken, and the General arrive at the base in the midst of Mario's battle with the Legion of Villains. He orders the General to kill the ninjas and freezes the Legion members in place when they rush him, allowing him to confront Ganon alone. In the battle, the Darkness seems to have the upper hand until Ganon overpowers him with a telekinetic push. Defeated, the Darkness teleports Mario, Ken, the General, and the others back to their bases. At his base, the Darkness is angry about Ganon's power while the General suggests looking for Link, an idea that the Darkness turns down as he did kill Link once before. He decides to do something he never thought he had to do while Ken tries to ask what he is talking about. Immediately, the agitated Darkness rushes over to close his mouth. The Darkness meets up with Luigi and Wario and suggests a team-up between their two armies to take down Ganon's. He then gets mad at them for indirectly breaking the fourth wall, an idea that they don't understand. Finally, he then asks them one more time about the team up. Eventually, he falls asleep while waiting for their answer. They agree to let him work with them and he gives them full use of his pirates. Later, the Darkness is told by Ken about Zubashi and the ninjas' upcoming invasion. The Darkness tells Ryu and Ken to spend their time as they please until the invasion comes. However, he regrets it when he forgets to tell them about getting him something to eat. While waiting for the two to return, the Darkness begins questioning his placement in the war, now believing himself not to want to take over the Real World anymore. Instead, he believes that his purpose is to kill his former boss Nox Decious. ]] With this in mind, the Darkness begins recallin g his conversation with Mr. L and how ambivalent Nox Decious was when he had tried to threaten him. The Darkness is then met by the General, who informs him that the ninjas are on their way. The Darkness is glad he will finally be able to get this over with and the General asks him what his orders are. Darkness pauses and tells General to go home, granting him an "honorable discharge". General is confused at first and is hesitant, but the Darkness reminds him of his wife and children and dismisses him. The General leaves for good and the Darkness declares it time for the death of Nox Decious. After killing several ninjas, Wario was mortally injured by Decious, and was later carried to Dr. Naomi Hunter by Mona as the Darkness came and took over the battle. ]] Nox Decious spent a majority of the battle moving away as the Darkness brutally tried to attack. As the battle progressed, the Darkness became increasingly frustrated when Decious escaped him. Eventually, the two got to the ground and crawled towards each other. Both pulled their beam swords to each other. The Darkness and Decious stabbed each other in the stomach. Decious believed that Ganon would triumph, though Darkness believed he was wrong. He assured Decious that he could find satisfaction in the fact that he finally killed his creator. As Decious toppled over, the Darkness fell silent for a few seconds before realizing it was the end and dropping to the ground. ]] As Mario was in Hyrule still getting training from Merlin, he realized that he couldn't remove the Master Sword. The Darkness spoke to Mario and agreed to give his spirit up along with Link and Merlin so they could combine their souls to give him the power needed, but giving up was remained of themselves to Mario. This gives him power enough to wield the Master Sword and kill Ganon, defeating him for good. Stupid Mario World Mario reveals that The Darkness's spirit left his head along with Link and Merlin's spirits. However Mario and Luigi don't really worry about it as they believe that he is dead for good. Wario however shows concern about this as he believes bad things could happen. Mario just dismisses it. The Plumber Knight Returns '']] In the ending of episode 10 of ''The Plumber Knight Returns, the Darkness was revealed as the identity of the Koopa and was wearing a different attire with bleached hair while fighting Mario. It turns out that it has never truly been alive. Everyone, "including the Darkness", thought it had become mortal because Mario's soul was growing strong within it. So when the Darkness "died", it returned to its incorporeal form while Mario's soul returned to Mario. Now the Darkness is back to its evil roots with none of Mario's soul to make it soft. In the beginning of Episode 11, the Darkness reveals that it did not kill Luigi and was on playing Mario along to get him out of retirement. It doesn't reveal its true motives or its reasoning for the creation of the Goombas and its persona of the Koopa. Later, the Darkness vanishes off to let Mario take care of the new problems that have emerged. At the end of episode 18 the Darkness reveals to Mario that the Blue Hood is Luigi. He also reveals that Luigi's true killer was Bowser Jr. in revenge for Mario killing Bowser. He also reveals that Bowser Jr. and a group of magikoopas stole Luigi's body and brainwashed him to give him one goal: kill Mario. He also tells Mario to not bother going to see Bowser Jr. because he's dead, he was killed by the Blue Hood once he was free. He reveals that he plans to have the Blue Hood kill Mario because he knows Mario won't be able to to kill Blue Hood because he is his brother. Character Overview Originally, the Darkness was pure evil as it was created by evil magic from Nox Decious. The Darkness grew to have eventually hated Decious as it was forced to live inside him for centuries. When the Darkness took on human form, it began to become overpowered by Mario's spirit. Eventually, the Darkness found that it wasn't truly evil anymore. It eventually died after not only killing its former boss, but saving Wario's life in the process. Personality The Darkness' personality went through multiple changes throughout the series. Not much was explored throughout Season Three, but he was shown to be a calm and calculating individual, only showing anger when Nilrem revealed himself to be Merlin. In the film, he was shown to be more mentally unstable and sadistic, breaking into fits of insane laughter and describing all the horrible things he did and could have done as "fun". Also, he was determined to differentiate himself from the real Mario, and often referred to the latter simply as "him" in a derisive manner, except when he addressed Mario, where he called him by the name. Despite his love for killing, he showed mercy on Ness by letting him go after defeating him. Despite his insanity, the Darkness is highly intelligent, finding out about Merlin's counter curse to kill him and working out a long term plan to rise to power and take over the world. However the Darkness has shown to be somewhat of a coward, waiting for Link to tire out so he can kill him, although this was out of careful planning, however he cloaked himself and stabbed Mario from behind. He also said he'll just leave Ganondorf to Mario instead of fighting him. He has shown to be very egomaniacal, after absorbing our heroes powers, he calls himself the most powerful being in existence, despite the fact he's going to leave Ganon to Mario and not do anything relevant. However, the Darkness can carry a conversation well enough. He has a sense of humor and can be playful at times. This side of him is mostly seen in Season Five as he has dreams of fighting Decious and enjoys reading magazines, ironically enough, the same sort as Decious. However, by the end of Season Five, he begins to question what his goal is, no longer desiring conquest. According to Rich Alvarez in the May 13th update, the Darkness has become more humane from absorbing the heroes' powers. This shows when he dismisses the General right before the major battle, showing genuine concern for the well-being of the General's family if he were to die. In The Plumber Knight Returns, the Darkness is once again evil after becoming the crime-lord known as the Koopa. It has also become obsessed with Mario to the point where it pretended to kill Luigi so that it could battle Mario and built its own criminal empire to further motivate him. The Darkness has also become much more organized, sneaky, cunning, despicable, and patient as it was able to manipulate events to where it and Mario would have their final battle. It was shown to be cruel and ruthless dealing harsh and painful tortures of both its enemies and its minions. He was also shown to be more laid back as instead of killing Mario himself he will have the Blue Hood do it instead claiming it will be more fun that way. Abilities / Skills As his physical body was created from half of the energy of Mario and a being a portion of magic created by Nox Decious, the Darkness has their combined power at his disposal. He mostly displays Mario's abilities, such as throwing fireballs and is also able to teleport and turn invisible like Decious. Because both Mario and Decious are both very skilled with a beam sword, the Darkness demonstrates great skill himself. Like his master, Darkness was a skilled fighter able to fight on par with Link and win (note link was exausted from all the walking) easily beat ness, bested Luigi, and overpower Wario and would've killed him if Wario had no Truth Stone. After waking up from his first death, he says he was able to perfect Decious' what Decious had learned, allowing him to create superior replicas of the Black Widow Blade. The Darkness is also capable of surviving mortal wounds to some extent: when he fought Wario in "Act II Part 3," he was able to recover from being impaled through the back with the Nether Saber, though he was in a death-like state for some time. Later, he told Mario that the killing blow Wario dealt him in their second battle would have indeed killed him had he not stored his essence in his hat. After the events of Operation: Blind Storm, he also obtained the combined powers of Wario, Luigi, and Ness. with these combined powers he killed Blaire with ease, freezes the Legion of Villains and finally match Nox Decious in battle. In Plumber Knight Returns he has shown to still possess most of his old abilities, such as teleportation, his Beam Sword skills, and able to create Dark Energy Balls. Attire In its original form, the Darkness looked like a dark version of Mario. It wore black overalls over a black shirt with chains under a trench coat and black gloves. It wore a hat similar to Mario's and had dark rings around its eyes. Over this, it wore a black overcoat and wielded the Black Widow Blade until its first duel with Wario. Eventually, the Darkness took off its overcoat before its battle with Wario, which it never donned again. Following the battle, it discarded its hat, saying it had "no need of that disgusting thing anymore" as it did not want to associate itself with Mario, the latter of which it transferred a large percentage of its being. Before its "final" battle with Wario, the Darkness seemed to have required a necklace and its hair had orange highlights. In Season Four, the Darkness' attire is drastically different: Although it still wears the shirt, overalls, and the chains, it now wears a leather overcoat as opposed to its older one and has smaller circles around its eyes. Its hair is turned red, which it claims it dyed, but is truly a side effect of Mario's energy as both the Darkness and "him" grew stronger. In Season Five, the Darkness has dyed its hair closely back to its black color as it was told that "red was not in this year". It is seen without its necklace until the last few episodes. Also, the Darkness' hair style constantly changes: In the film, it was sort of flat with a curve in the front. In the last few episodes, its hair is more like a mohawk. In The Plumber Knight Returns, the Darkness has bleached hair and a bleached beard, even retaining the dark small circles around its eyes. Its appearance is the same as Mario probably because it still has a bit of Mario's spirit left in it. His attire consists of his leather trenchcoat, a black shirt, a chain necklace and a pair of jeans Relationships Mario The Darkness as Wario refers to it is Mario's shadow. In the movie, the two were enemies. In Episode 66, Wario welcomes the Darkness as an ally in hopes of defeating Ganondorf. The Darkness does not seem to have a problem with working with Mario. In Episode 75, he even sacrifices his spirit of power to Mario to kill Ganondorf even asking Mario to take Ganon's head, showing that he still has his own agenda even in death. After it gave Mario's spirit back to him, it eventually regenerated and became evil again due to Mario's soul making him more humane. After 20 years of Mario's retirement, The Darkness took the alias of the Koopa and formed a revolution of goomba's, after the goomba's have stated to terrorize Ferral City, The Darkness has made constant threats to the city and claimed to have killed Luigi to get Mario out of retirement. Once it and Mario finally fought, the Darkness revealed himself to him, and revealed he didn't actually kill Luigi and that everything was to get Mario out of retirement, then left. Eventually after Mario fought the blue hood, The Darkness had confirmed to Mario that the blue hood is Luigi, and that the one who killed him was Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr killed Luigi out of revenge for Mario ripping his father Bowser's head off, and then made him the blue hood to kill Mario. Darkness reveals he would now let blue hood kill him. Nox Decious The Darkness was originally created by his original boss Nox Decious, but it fed off of his heart for generations. When the Darkness finally split from Decious, he pretended to recognize Decious as his master. However, after he killed Mario and Decious took over Luigi's body, he officially split from Decious, stating that he never cared about Decious and only wanted to give him a new body just for the purpose of killing Decious himself, which he eventually did in episode 75 after Nox was resurrected by Ganon. He has then grown to hate Decious more and more. In Episode 73, the Darkness states that his only purpose is to kill Nox Decious. In Episode 75, the Darkness and Nox Decious do battle, which results in the two killing each other. However, the Darkness doesn't mind his death, as he killed Nox Decious. The only reason he had for doing so was to finally rid himself of his past. Trivia * Rich Alvarez did not expect the Darkness to be so popular with the fans. "I'm actually really surprised at how much people liked the Darkness. The entire time I was playing the character I was always worried that I was doing it wrong and / or bad... I thought he would come off too stupid." * He is never referred to as "Shadow Mario" onscreen; the other characters only refer to it as "the Darkness." However, both Alvarez and Chris Muller have referred to him as "Shadow Mario," most notably in "Unpersuasive Persuasion." * The Darkness is actually not human nor is he alive really since he is only a substance that took on Mario's form. However, in "Act II Part 6," Wario says the counter curse "Obscurem Absentis Humanis," which is Latin for "Darkness be gone and become human." However, the Darkness revealed that he was actually mortal the entire time and was able to survive Wario's killing blows because he stored its being in his hat. * The Darkness may never be truly killed as he was defeated 3 times and he came back every single time. Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Original characters Category:Season Three Category:Season Four Category:Season Five Category:The Movie Category:Operation: Blind Storm Category:The Brotherhood of Darkness Category:The Plumber Knight Returns